Houston Astros general manager Jeff Luhnow tried to downplay a report by CBS Sports' Jon Heyman that said teams are very interested in trading for All-Star catcher Jason Castro. But he didn't completely rule out a deal, either.

“I’m not surprised that there would be interest in Jason. He’s clearly one of our most valuable players. I’m never going to say someone is untouchable. But we fully expect Jason to be on our club for a long time to come," Luhnow told MLB.com's Brian McTaggart at the general managers' meetings in Orlando. "He’s reaching his peak. He was our All-Star last year. He’s a team leader.

“He had a tremendous year. He’s an athletic catcher who can hit home runs and throw runners out. Those guys don’t exist very often, so I really don’t have a lot of interest in exploring that. Like I’ve always said, I’ll listen to anything if someone wants to talk to me.”

Castro, 26, batted .276/.350/.485 with 18 home runs and 56 RBIs in 2013, although he also missed the final month with a knee injury.